The plan worked to perfection. Trenton’s pressure slowed Johnson and the Tornadoes to 55-39 win.

Hamilton (1-1) jumped out to a 16-13 first-quarter lead, but Fields limited Johnson to only two free throws in the second quarter. Also, Trenton’s half-court press forced eight turnovers resulting in easy baskets and the Tornadoes coasted to a 33-16 lead at the half.

“We had to turn up the heat in the second quarter ... that’s Trenton basketball,” Murray said. “It’s a hustle, pride, defense kind of thing and we weren’t hustling in the beginning.

“We had the wrong man on Alexis, then we went with Moe (Fields). And with Moe on her, it gave her (Johnson) a bigger presence to deal with.”

In the second quarter, Fields also scored nine of her team-high 19 points. Cookie Godbold, who played a key role out front on defense helping Fields with Johnson, also added five points as Trenton outscored Hamilton 20-10 and Trenton never looked back.

“He (Murray) wanted us to go box-and-one on her and stop her from scoring,” said Fields referring to Johnson. “It wasn’t just me, it was our whole team that played good defense. My job was to keep her outside and keep her from getting inside the paint and stop her from going to the hole.

“I did my best to keep her from getting offensive rebounds off missed shots. I think as a team we did a good job of not letting her get second shots when her teammates missed shots.”

Johnson was held without a field goal from late in the first quarter until she scored in the third before adding five more in the last quarter.

Erin Septer helped the Hornets with her 13 points. The Hornets’ only other scorer was Tiara Upshur who had five points.

“We got out to a great lead and had our confidence going and the little things started to hurt us. We had trouble passing and our rebounding really hurt us tonight. I think Alexis stepped up and Erin did too, and we had some great moments, but we just couldn’t put a whole game together.”